The Australia Institute is today releasing a new FOI showing that the CSIRO pays membership fees to the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) of $10k a year.

The CSIRO is an associate member of the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), the mining lobby group known for its forceful campaigns against effective action on climate change.

“The Minerals Council has been on the fringe of the climate and energy debate in Australia, opposing policies that would tackle emissions effectively,” Executive Director of The Australia Institute, Ben Oquist said.

Political donations in Australia are difficult to monitor as many go unreported. Only donations over $13,000 are disclosed to the Australian Electoral Commission. The majority of donations are likely to be under this disclosure threshold or hidden through other means, such as through associated entities or party fundraising events.

Australia’s mining industry is 86% foreign owned and has spent over $541 million in the last ten years on lobbying Australian governments through its peak lobby groups, which are dominated by foreign interests. Spending on lobbying by individual mining companies is not public information, but would bring this number up significantly.

New research released today by the Australia Institute shows that the mining industry is dominated by foreign corporate interests that are spending hundreds of millions of dollars influencing our political process.

“Total annual demand for electricity in the NEM is dead flat. With both national economic activity and population continuing to grow, electricity consumers are continuing to respond to ever rising prices by using electricity more efficiently, as they have been doing for most of the past seven years,” Dr Saddler said.

What we do and don’t know about mines, closures and rehabilitation in Victoria.

Little data is available to the public on the clean-up from the mining boom. State government agencies often lack basic information on how many mines are in operation, with still less published on closures and abandonments.

The citizenship debacle engulfing the Nationals, and in turn the Coalition government, has as much to do with trust and integrity as it does with the constitution. Being consistent is important in business and in government.

[This article was first published by the Australian Financial Review - here]

After the Greens' Scott Ludlum and Larissa Waters resigned over citizenship issues, Barnaby Joyce declared "It's quite clear under section 44 you can't be a member of parliament and have dual citizenship. It's black and white."

Queensland government will be “substantially involved” in any loan to Adani under the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), as outlined by the Department that helped design the NAIF, in its submission to the Senate NAIF inquiry.

This account has been confirmed by the Queensland government’s own submission, which notes that Queensland’s “roles and responsibilities… through the assessment and approval process” includes a cross-government “Queensland NAIF Panel [that] has been formed to consider each Investment Proposal.”

The Australia Institute made a submission to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee regarding the inquiry into the Environment and Infrastructure Legislation Amendment (Stop Adani) Bill 2017 (the Bill).

Our submission notes the merits of the Bill’s proposed amendments, in relation to the Adani coal mine but also more broadly, as the new tests would apply to any NAIF or EPBC assessments. We also note the substantial concerns about Adani’s corporate history, which would come under closer legal consideration in light of the new tests.

The Australia Institute is the country’s most influential progressive think tank. We conduct research on a broad range of economic, social and environmental issues in order to inform public debate and bring greater accountability to the democratic process.